One of the themes of this blog is that medieval Georgia is a mixture of cultures. Of course every place interacts with the cultures around it and there are very few regions where the culture is monolithic. However in the early and high medieval periods Georgia stands out because it is a mix of very diverse cultures.
It is common to view medieval Georgia through the lens of a Byzantine client state. Until the 12th century the rules used Byzantine titles and imagery. The two are connected by religion, ties of marriage, and alliances against a seemingly common enemy in the form of the Abbasid caliphate and then the Seljuk Turks.
However that is a limited viewpoint in many ways. Although connected by language and religion, the area that was united into the medieval Kingdom of Georgia is divided into two portions by the Likhi (or Surami) mountain range that runs roughly north-south connecting the Greater and Lesser Caucasus ranges. This range can be seen on the landform map below.
The western portion of Georgia is culturally tied to the Black Sea and thus the Greeks and Romans. Additionally it did not fall under the control of Islamic rulers until the Mongols in the 13th century. On the other hand the area to the east of the Likhi range is historically tied to the Iranian culture and was controlled at times by Persian and Islamic rulers including, for much of the region, the time just prior to the unification of Georgia.
If you compare the first map of political entities in 1060 with the map above of political entities in 1124 you can see that the Kingdom of Georgia expanded mostly in the eastern region. Kakheti-Hereti and the area of around Tbilisi had long been considered the heartland of Georgia even after the Islamic conquest pushed the political center of pre-unification Georgia to the west and southwest and into closer ties to the Byzantines. In moving to recover the eastern regions of Kartvelian speakers and then pushing farther into Arran, Shirvan, Darbent, and areas controlled by Armenian rulers there was a strengthening of ties to the Islamic and Turko-Persian worlds.
Finally, while it is less often discussed it is clear that there was cultural exchange across the Caucasus with the Alans, the Kipchaks, and other occupants of the Pontic Steppes. One branch of the Silk Road passed through the North Caucasus and over passes into Svaneti and Abkhazia. While this route was not as important during the 12th century there is evidence of continued trade, political connections, and cultural ties across the Caucasus range.
This type of multicultural situation is not unique to Georgia. There are parallels in Norman Sicily and the Crusader States but those are situations where the Christians arrived as foreign conquers. The Iberian peninsula prior to the Reconquista is a closer analogy. Importantly, from an SCA point of view, Georgia is different due to comparatively smaller body of accessible academic research and SCA documentation. Thus applying the ideas of a multicultural society with Armenian, Greek, Persian, Alanian, and Turkic influences as well as the Georgian base is critical to interpreting the information that we do have.
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